The speakers are likely going to be shipped across country. Between the shipping costs, paypal and the shipping boxes it'll add around $300.00 to the cost of the speakers.
Definitely going to double box them with a few inches of bubble wrap between the two boxes.
One friend has told me that you want UPS to do the boxing just to make it more likely to collect insurance if things go wrong. Any opinions on this as it would likely add quite a bit of cost?
And any opinions of using USP or Fedex for the shipping? Any other carriers to look at?
Wayne Parham Messages: 18676 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
If they're small, you can ship with carriers like UPS and Fed-X. Just pack them well and be sure to insure them for an appropriate amount. I'd say one out of a thousand packages are damaged or lost.
If larger than about a cubic foot and/or heavier than 50 pounds, palletize each speaker and have a crate built around the pallet. Then send 'em via LTL carrier. Still want to be insured, of course, and the risk is still about the same. But palletized packages sent by LTL truck offer different methods to load and unload. This has some advantages on larger packages, and I think makes 'em less prone to having problems on either end.
Ironically, it's often cheaper to ship LTL too, especially for heavy stuff. Then again, the cost of crating usually more than makes up the transport savings in cost.
The buyer is leaning towards having the carrier packing the double box just in case we have to file a claim. It's very likely that the cost of shipping, insurance and boxing will exceed a reasonable cost.
Is there a reason you don't want to use USPS? I know the postal service isn't fancy, but they have reasonable rates that include insurance and a free box. That's who Amazon uses, and they're a billion-dollar company, so there must be something to it. I order a lot off eBay, and those sellers also usually ship with USPS. It can't hurt to price it out.
eBay sellers often use drop-shipping as their entire business model. They are simply ordering from another source, adding a small mark-up, and allowing that source to ship it off. Maybe that's why you're seeing so many USPS packages.
DHL is the only other shipping company I know. I've used them before at work. They did a decent job. I think they were cheaper than FedEx and UPS, which is why we used them.
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